2) We’ve put the text online of our new zine How To Start A Prison Books Collective. We hope that this humble contribution will help other prison books groups get started and expand the important work of sending political, legal, and self-educational resources to prisoners. You can find the text here.

3) The Prison Ecology Project has extended its online fundraiser. They are creating tools to dismantle toxic prisons. So far, they are the only group focused on the intersection of environment and mass incarceration. Currently they are building a database of the five thousand prisons and jails around the country, finding the weak points in the environmental realm, and providing tools to organize locally. You can donate here.

1) Here is our super duper late political prisoner birthday poster for October. As always, please post this poster publicly and/or use it to start a card writing night of your own. This month’s poster honors the life and work of Loukaniko, the Greek riot dog, who died this month following health troubles that some people believe stemmed from their repeated exposure to tear gas.

2) CrimethInc. has a Kickstarter to print 100,000 free copies of their new booklet, introducing radical ideas and values to a broader audience.. To Change Everything is a full-color 48-page booklet. In fresh, accessible language, it explores the virtues of self-determination, illuminates why authoritarian power structures cannot resolve the crises they produce, and discusses how to weave our personal revolts together into a collective struggle for liberation. If you have any extra money, consider throwing some their way.

3) Political Prisoner Tom Manning is scheduled to see the US Parole Board in November. In a recent letter he asks that people write letters supporting his release on parole. He writes “so if folks can just write their own letters expressing each ones ideas rather than all of them sounding like they read a form letter – so that they put their own voice down on paper.”

On the 27th of August 2014, I was in a physical altercation with another prisoner and now I’m in segregation for possibly a year.

Anyhow, I need y’all’s support while I’m in segregation. I need y’all to make sure I’m not idle (bored) by sending me radical newspapers, newsletters, magazines, letters, and stamps.

The thing about segregation is that it’s designed to cause pain and hurt, but it can also be turned into a school and place to build resistance. Everyone wants something to read to occupy the mind and not be bored, so it’s a great opportunity to pass literature around knowing it’s going to be read. In general population, prisoners are caught up in their own thing, whether it’s sports, drugs, gangbanging, TV, etc. and have little or no time or inclination to read anything that challenges the norm.

THE WAR CONTINUES!
FUCK THE STATE!
ANARCHY NOW!

[Please do not send books, as only religious books are allowed into segregation at Holman; zines, newsletters, newspapers, and pamphlets are fine. Literature, letters and stamps can be sent to Michael at the following address:

Michael Kimble
138017 / K-9
3700 Holman Unit
Atmore, AL 36503]

An interview with Michael was featured on episode #24 of CrimethInc.’s Ex-Worker podcast. Click here to download, subscribe, or read a transcript of the episode.

As most readers of this newsletter know, in January 2014 prisoners in Alabama went on work strike. This work strike was called for by the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), and began on January 1st and ended on January 15th, 2014. The strike was ended because the message was given that our free world supporters (ACLU, the Ordinary People Society, etc.) were in negotiation with State legislators and that these same legislators had committed to addressing the issues put forth by FAM that prompted the strike.

Then on January 15th, a special session of the Alabama legislature was called that was supposed to address these issues, and the free world supporters asked that the strike be suspended until the end of the session. The FAM in turn asked the striking prisoners to stand down. On the 15th we suspended the strike and the legislators put our issues on the back burner until a later unknown date. (more…)